Will Insurgents Re-Emerge in Iraq?
Posted: August 8, 2010 Filed under: Iraq, Terrorism, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Will Insurgents Re-Emerge in Iraq?
The Effect of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq — by Luke N. Condra, Joseph H. Felter, Radha K. Iyengar, Jacob N. Shapiro
Posted: July 5, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
The Effect of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq — by Luke N. Condra, Joseph H. Felter, Radha K. Iyengar, Jacob N. Shapiro
How are insurgents able to mobilize the population to fight and withhold valuable information from government forces? More specifically, what role does government mistreatment of non-combatants play? We study these questions by using uniquely-detailed micro-data from Afghanistan and Iraq to assess the impact of civilian casualties on insurgent violence. By comparing the data along temporal, spatial, and gender dimensions we are able to distinguish short-run ‘information’ and ‘capacity’ effects from the longer run ‘recruiting’ and ‘revenge’ effects. In Afghanistan we find strong evidence for a revenge effect in that local exposure to ISAF generated civilian casualties drives increased insurgent violence over the long-run. Matching districts with similar past trends in violence shows that counterinsurgent-generated civilian casualties from a typical incident are responsible for 6 additional violent incidents in an average sized district in the following 6 weeks. There is no evidence of short run effects in Afghanistan, thus ruling out the information and the capacity mechanisms. Critically, we find no evidence of a similar reaction to civilian casualties in Iraq, suggesting insurgents‘ mobilizing tools may be quite conflict-specific. Our results show that if counterinsurgent forces in Afghanistan wish to minimize insurgent recruitment, they must minimize harm to civilians despite the greater risk this entails.
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
http://www.danieljosephsmith.com
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute
Posted: April 27, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=191
Daniel J. Smith
Sent Via Mobile Phone
www.danieljosephsmith.com
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute
Posted: April 27, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=569
Daniel J. Smith
Sent Via Mobile Phone
www.danieljosephsmith.com
Strange Laws
Posted: April 14, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Government, Iraq, Law, Police, War Leave a comment »http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/04/strange-law.html
MARK BRADY: The Pentagon Exposed – Courtesy of the CIA?
Posted: April 6, 2010 Filed under: Iraq, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
MARK BRADY: The Pentagon Exposed – Courtesy of the CIA?
Wikileaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians.
All Terrorism is Local
Posted: April 1, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Terrorism, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
All Terrorism is Local
Democrats Dump Anti-War Lovers
Posted: March 25, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Democrats Dump Anti-War Lovers
HT: Dr. Adam Martin
The Government Will Do Anything to Keep Us Safe–Except End the Empire
Posted: January 12, 2010 Filed under: Foriegn Intervention, Iraq, War Leave a comment »http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/12/the-government-will-do-anythin
The handwringing about the would-be Christmas Day airplane bomber and the politicians’ tiresome declarations that it will never happen again miss the point: As long as the U.S. government pursues its imperial program of invasion, regime change, occupation, and sponsorship of corrupt governments in the Muslim world, Americans will be targets for avengers….It’s either foreign intervention and retaliatory terrorism or nonintervention and security. There’s no third way….Every empire has reaped a terrorist whirlwind. “Terror” is the tactic that the weak use against the strong. The U.S. government unleashes the most powerful “conventional” weapons known to man, including pilotless killer drones operated like videogames thousands of miles away. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sewed an explosive into his underwear and ended up burning himself.
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1001d.asp
Robert Higgs: Troop surge in Afghanistan is a losing investment
Posted: December 7, 2009 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, War Leave a comment »Was the Iraq War Worth It?
Posted: November 15, 2009 Filed under: Iraq, Middle East, Military, War Leave a comment »http://jeffreymiron.blogspot.com/2009/11/was-iraq-war-worth-it.html
